FLOIJA OF TIIK KOOTANIE FORMATION. 279 



Other collections wei'e made not only l>y Mr. Williams hut also by 

 Mr. O. C. Mortson, Dr. A. (". Peale, Dr. V.U. Knowlton, and Mr. \V. H. 

 Weed. Several of these collections found their way to Washington and 

 were sent to Professor Fontaine for determination. His report upon them 

 was pul)lished in 1S9'2." In this paper lo species and varieties are 

 enumerated, (i of which were new. Of the others I , Pecoptcris Browniami 

 Dunk, (now referred to ('ladophlel)is), had h(M'n pieviously leported from 

 the Great Falls coal Held, 5 were Potomac plants, and l] w(M-e Lower 

 Cretaceous oi' Wealden plants of Arctic or Kuropean \>vi\s. The new 

 species, Zamites /notd'inensis, is a t)eautiful frond with a decidedly Jurassic 

 aspect. It is not to be confomided with the Zawitvx monhnia of Dawson 

 from the Kootanie of AUjerta, a much smaller plant. 



In 1891 Mr. H. M. Ami and Dr. Hayden made collections of fossil 

 plants from the Kootanie in the Cascade coal basin of the liocky Moun- 

 tains, which wei'e worked up l)y Sir William Dawson and reported upon 

 the following year.'' The material must have been poor, as many o. the 

 forms were not specifically determined, but the new species Angioptcndium 

 ranmorcnsc, which has now been found in the Shasta formation of Cali- 

 fornia, was among them. Beyond this these collections added little to 

 what had previously been obtained. At the close of the p,ap(M- all the 

 species known from the Kootanie are enumerated, and the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands beds are correlated with these, although there are no species com- 

 mon to Ijoth regions. As to the probable age of the Kootanie he says 

 (p. 93): 



With reference to the a<je of the aliove flora, it is to l)e observed (iiat tiie species 

 are ahnost entirely different from tliose of the .Middle and Upper Creteceous, tliat 

 they include some forms usually regarded as Jurassic, hut that tlie greater nunihcu- 

 have the facies of the Lower Cretaceous. It is also ol>serval)le that no angiosjier- 

 nious exogens are included, though had these been present at least in any consid- 

 eiahlc numbers they could scarcely have escaped detection. In the next succeed- 

 ing or Mill Creek Grouj) plants of this type occur, though not in hirge numbers, 

 hrtiie Potomac Fornuition of Fontaine there are, however, consi(K>rable numbers 

 of true exogens. 



These facts seem to indicate that the Kootanie flora belongs to the lowest 

 portion of the Cretaceous, and may be a little older than that of the nuiin part of 



"DescT^ptuiii'.JT^fossil plants fn.in flu- Great Falls ooal fu'Ul of Moiitai.a. by William M. Font aine ; Pioc. 

 U S Nat Mus., Vol. XV, Washington, 1S92, pp. 4S7-49.5. ,)1. Ixxxii-lx.xxiv, 



» Correlation of early Cretaceous florsvs in Canada an.l the I'nited States, l.y Sir W ilhani Dawson: Trans. 

 Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. X, Sect. IV, 1892, pp. 79-93. 



